The giving of the Torah at Sinai was an event of tremendous magnitude. With “thunder and lightning… and a very loud blast of the
horn” (Exodus 19:16), the Sinai tradition silenced competing traditions
concerning the location of the giving of the Torah — the Law — to Israel. Indeed, more than one site claimed to be the place where Israel
received its Torah during the people’s wandering in the wilderness.

The story of the Israelites’ first stop in the wilderness after crossing
the Sea of Reeds contains a mini-giving of the Torah, though we tend
to ignore this story in favor of its much more impressive Sinai parallel.
For three days the people of Israel wandered in the wilderness without
finding water, and with their arrival at Marah (identified as Ein Hawarah, a pool of salty water east of Suez), they were disappointed to
discover that the waters were bitter, and so is the place given its name:
“They came to Marah, but they could not drink the water of Marah
because it was bitter [marim]; that is why it was named Marah” (Exodus 15:23).

The people of Israel are quick to protest. It is the first of numerous
complaints that they will voice and that will characterize their stay
in the wilderness: “And the people grumbled against Moses, saying
‘What shall we drink?’” (Exodus 15:24). Moses cries out to the Lord,
who grants a miraculous solution to the Israelites’ suffering: “And the
LORD showed [Moses] a piece of wood; he threw it into the water and
the water became sweet” (v. 25). At Marah we witness the first of the

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